MIP online legal encyclopedia - » Criminal cases - comments from a Federal Judge / MIP Law Group » List of articles on crimes » Causing grievous bodily harm through negligence - comments from a Federal Judge / MIP Law Group
Sign up for a consultation with the head of the criminal department. We specialize in Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Professional explanations. Unlimited consultation time
Causing grievous bodily harm through negligence – free answers from lawyers online
What is personal injury?
Let’s immediately make a reservation: all criminal cases of causing bodily harm, including serious ones, are always individualized and have different options for the development of events for the criminal. However, the legislator managed to provide for all options as much as possible and establish punishment for each situation. Namely, he divided personal injuries into three categories.
First of all, let's define what the concept of “bodily injury” includes.
Bodily injury is the result of human actions, as a result of which the integrity of the injured person’s tissues, organs was damaged, or they were deprived of functionality. The degree of severity is determined by forensic experts.
In other words, bodily injuries are bruises, hematomas, fractures, injuries, etc., intentionally inflicted on another person (the victim). For example, serious bodily harm can be caused during a fight, targeted beating, etc. In addition, bodily harm can be caused by negligence.
According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, damage can be divided into three categories, based on the consequences of injuries and injuries received by the victim:
- Minor bodily injuries (resulting in the loss of the victim’s ability to work for a short period of time).
- Bodily injuries of moderate severity (injuries and other harm to health that are not dangerous to human health and life). However, the victim is deprived of his ability to work for a long period of time or completely loses one third of his previous ability to work.
- Serious bodily injury – all injuries that are dangerous to life and health in general. For example: Threat to the life of the victim (for example, internal ruptures of organs, etc.);
- Loss of limbs, organs;
- Loss of functionality of the body or individual organs;
- Complete or temporary (long period of time) loss of performance;
- Abortion;
- Disability;
- Hearing or vision loss;
- The emergence of drug addiction;
- Facial disfigurement that cannot be corrected by practical surgery. For example, from knife wounds to the facial area of the victim, especially a woman;
- Death of the victim.
In any case, serious bodily injury inflicted on another person will subject the offender to criminal penalties, including actual prison time (imprisonment).
If you are trying to independently determine the severity of the damage, then you can always take advantage of the site’s free legal support. The application form is available at the end of the article.
How to Determine the Severity of Personal Injuries
As a rule, the severity of harm to health, including if it is necessary to prove serious bodily injury, is determined by forensic experts.
Before issuing a conclusion on the degree of severity, specialists of the expert department are obliged to:
- Research the specifics of the case;
- Examine the circumstances of the damage;
- Conduct an examination of the victim and diagnose his injuries;
- Assess the degree of influence of the inflicted injuries on the victim’s performance;
- The time period during which the victim will be able to restore the functionality of the body is determined.
In addition, it is forensic experts who determine the cause of the victim’s injuries. As soon as serious bodily injury is determined, experts draw up a special act, which is one of the main documents during the trial of the case. The resulting act has a huge impact on the choice of punishment.
Actions on the part of the victim
Due to the specifics of this class of offenses, the victim is often unable not only to independently qualify the severity of his own injuries, but also to correctly determine the person responsible for the damage received.
In most cases, when severe injuries occur, immediate hospitalization is required, during which employees of the medical institution, based on the nature of the injuries received by the victim, are required to notify law enforcement agencies, after which the police initiate a criminal case.
The victim will only be required to present an identity card or a document replacing it, as well as a compulsory medical insurance policy for hospitalization. However, depending on the circumstances of the incident, during which the victim’s health was seriously harmed, as well as the severity of the injuries received, these documents may not be required.
An investigator will be responsible for conducting the case, whose responsibilities include clarifying the circumstances of the incident during which the victim was injured, searching for the culprit, as well as determining his motives and the degree of his guilt.
Provided that the investigation finds clear evidence of the absence of malicious intent on the part of the perpetrator and obtains the conclusion of a forensic expert on the severe degree of damage to the health of the victim, a criminal case under Art. 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is transferred to court, where during the proceedings the penalty for the perpetrator is established.
What is the penalty for serious bodily injury?
Now let's move on to talking about what punishment the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for causing grave harm to human health. The prison term for causing grievous bodily harm is established in Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - 8 years of imprisonment.
Serious bodily harm is punishable under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation itself contains clauses that provide for all possible scenarios for the development of events and incidents in which grievous bodily harm was inflicted.
So, let's talk about each point:
- Clause 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The first paragraph contains an indication that any intentional infliction of serious bodily harm to the life and health of a person, which resulted in loss of ability to work (disability), temporary deprivation of ability to work (long-term sick leave, etc.). If the crime is classified under this article, the offender faces imprisonment for up to eight years.
- Clause 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
This paragraph indicates aggravating circumstances, in the presence of which the punishment will be increased. These include:
- Infliction of grievous bodily harm while the victim was performing his official duty;
- Causing harm to health for personal gain, as well as to fulfill an “order” (crime for hire);
- The victim turned out to be a minor citizen, a young child;
- Causing bodily harm to a person who is obviously helpless or disabled;
- The crime was committed in a generally dangerous manner;
- The damage to health was caused by their hooligan motives;
- The religious, political, ideological and racial beliefs of the offender that became the motive for committing the crime.
If the crime is classified under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the term of imprisonment will be increased to 10 years.
However, the exact term of punishment will be determined by the court solely on an individual basis for each individual case.
Have a question for a lawyer? Ask now, call and get a free consultation from leading lawyers in your city. We will answer your questions quickly and try to help with your specific case.
Telephone in Moscow and the Moscow region: +7
Phone in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region: +7
Free hotline throughout Russia: 8 (800) 301-39-20
Causing harm to health through negligence from a firearm
accused of committing crimes under Art. Art. 222 part 1, 111 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,
— illegal acquisition, storage and carrying of firearms;
The material evidence - a sawn-off shotgun - should be destroyed. Victim M., who did not appear at the court hearing, whose testimony given at the preliminary investigation stage was read out at the court hearing at the request of the public prosecutor with the consent of the parties in accordance with Art. 281 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation showed that in the morning of __.__.__ he arrived to. V. V. and identified the corpse of a woman located there - it was his mother, M. (vol. 1, pp. 49-51). Taking into account the property status of the defendant, the court does not impose an additional penalty on him in the form of a fine under Art.
111 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Criminal punishment for assault
Battery, as well as bodily injury, has its own qualifications established by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation since July 2016.
For January 2022, two penalties have been established:
- Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – beating of close relatives or because of national motives.
That is, the number of injured persons should include parents, spouses, children (natural and adopted), grandparents, grandchildren, as well as adoptive parents, guardians and trustees. Also, this qualification can include persons who caused grievous bodily harm due to hooligan or national motives as a result of a fight.
- Article 116.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – repeated beating.
The main condition is that the perpetrator must have previously established administrative punishment for causing bodily harm.
Despite the fact that the Criminal Code has divided responsibility for causing harm to health, in some cases punishment can be avoided.
If the beating did not cause irreversible health consequences, or did not fall under any of the qualifying criteria, then criminal liability can be avoided.
However, the culprit will be punished in any case. The penalty may be chosen from the following list:
- 360 hours of compulsory work;
- Two years of isolation from society;
- In case of repeated beatings: Fine up to 40 thousand rubles;
- Mandatory work – 240 hours;
- Correctional work – up to 6 months.
- Mandatory work – 480 hours;
If the court discovers national or hooligan motives, the offender will be sentenced to two years in a penal colony.
Intent in committing this crime
The main feature that makes causing harm a crime is the intent of the offender:
- direct - when the perpetrator directly wanted harm to be caused;
- indirect - when the perpetrator may not have specifically sought to cause harm to the health of the victim, but could and was obliged to realize that this harm would be caused.
Intent is especially emphasized because causing minor harm to health is not subject to criminal punishment. In this case, the victim can seek compensation for damage only through civil proceedings.
When grievous bodily harm is punished to the fullest extent - the most severe punishment
Despite the fact that we listed in the previous paragraph all the main punishment options provided for in Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which include two categories of punishment: up to 8 years and up to 10 years.
For infliction of grievous bodily harm with aggravating features leading to the death of the victim, if the court chooses the most severe punishment, the penalty will be imprisonment for a term of up to 15 years. Sometimes the court may additionally impose two years of restriction of freedom.
So, paragraph 3 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a prison term of 15 years, which is chosen as a punishment in particularly large and serious cases that resulted in the death of the victim.
As an example, we can consider situations in which the criminal inflicted a series of blows on the victim using his professional skills, strength, and special tools. As a rule, the perpetrator understands the possible consequences of his actions, including the fact that the injuries he inflicted could cause the death of the victim. He must also assume that the victim may suffer additional injuries, for example, if he falls from a blow from the perpetrator.
So, if severe bodily injuries caused the death of the victim, then according to the law the offender faces a tougher punishment - up to 15 years in prison. Mitigating circumstances are not considered.
